Ally McBeal Island
by Thor2000
Summary: The firm Ally joined in New York City has sent her on a trip to Fantasy Island where Mr. Roarke gives Ally a taste of what her married life would have been like with one of her former beaus, but she decides not to return to reality.
1. Default Chapter

A plane sailed out from Los Angeles toward the Hawaiian Islands. Beautiful blonde actress Alex Lambert was on her way to star in a movie out on the popular tourist spot as she talked on her phone to her agent as she gazed periodically out the window with her rich brown eyes on to a view reserved for birds, stars and gods. The plane broke through wafting tops of clouds while down below a random gull or albatross skimmed the water surface.

"It looks like a great script," She told her agent. "Who's going to be my co-star?" She drew silent as she listened. "Faith Fairlane? From the soap? Please tell me you're kidding?"

In the seat in front of her, Ally McBeal wanted to jam that cell phone down her throat. Every time she had tried to doze off last night, it had ringed and woke her up. She had been on edge for over three months since she had moved to New York, and her stress level had escalated so high that her colleagues chip together to get her this vacation in the South Pacific. Her head slowly rose over the top of her seat as she stared irritated toward the blonde actress.

"Is there a problem?" Alex asked toward her.

Ally didn't say a thing. She just lowered back down into her seat, rolled her eyes and peered out the window again. She saw an island that wasn't there before as the plane started descending. It's water wings skimmed close to the surface of the island and slowly began on advance into a lagoon. She could see numerous bungalows and white structures partially concealed in foliage as her plane started its ascent. Like a great white bird coming to roost on the water, the plane started slowing as the stewardess instructed them for the landing. Another peek and the petite lady lawyer realized the plane was floating on the island. The engines hummed a bit longer before they were turned off and once their dull roar was over, Ally could hear the music of the islands that much closer. She had never been in Hawaii before nor had she even heard of this private resort, but from what she saw, she was looking forward to the Polynesian hospitality and cuisine.

The hula dancers started dancing and swaying their hips as Alex had descended first and was met with the welcoming committee. The young men in Polynesian skirts kissed her welcome and placed leis over her shoulders as Ally nervously stepped back and allowed the other people on the plane disembark ahead of her rather than to quickly disembark. Steven and Elyse Keaton slowly passed her as Ally became briefly jealous of their happiness. She wondered if it was still possible for her to get even get married and find someone as Steven as she glanced over the other married couple on board. Tom Wagner was just like a writer she had once dated and his wife, Susan, doted on him as much as she had doted on her own writer. Tom had given up a lot to leave New York and live with Susan's family in Kansas. Ally had done the same to return to New York for the sake of her daughter, but now she wondered if anyone might ever do the same for her.

With a nervous repose and a hesitant step, Ally picked up her travel case and actually stepped from the plane. It seemed to jar a bit from her as a hunky and brawn native guided her. A nervous grin from her lips, Ally's eyes nervously looked around as other young men golden tanned from the constant sun placed leis around her shoulders and kissed her welcome. A young lady offered her a complimentary drink as Ally wanted to step back on to the plane and hide. She felt like Alice in Wonderland in this paradise. It was so far from her native Boston and her transplanted Manhattan. Guided gently under a gazebo of climbing vines away from the dock, she entered into a small courtyard topped by palm trees and lined by fronds. She silently sipped her tropical drink and emerged alone. Both the Wagners and the Keatons were at one side with the actress as their distinguished host in a complete white suit and black tie stood by his black manservant, Mojo, the latest in a long line of menservants which once included tall Englishmen and diminutive Frenchmen. Ally and Alex gazed at each other distantly as their host lifted a drink of his own toward them.

"My friends," He started. "I am Mr. Roarke, your host. Welcome to Fantasy Island!"


	2. Chapter 2

PART TWO

Ally had a wonderful tour of the island after her complimentary lunch. It was a large buffet of continental cuisines and local dishes as she was lead on a short tour of the island and its facilities, but when she inquired of her guest quarters, she was taken to the main house on the estate on the island and asked to wait in a grand study. Still sipping a rapidly refreshed tropical drink, she soon turned her head to Mr. Roarke coming to join her.

"Mrs. McBeal," He slipped behind his desk as his black manservant gave him his mail. "How are you enjoying your visit?"

"I can honestly say I've never been anywhere like this in my entire life." Ally lightly smiled like a little girl as she nervously pulled her hair back. Mr. Roarke lightly grinned back to her.

"Thank you." He beamed pleasingly. "The island does have a magic all its own." He picked up a folder and opened it. "I noticed that your associates paid for your vacation here. Apparently, they informed me, that even when you worked for your previous firms in Boston, you never took a vacation."

"Well," Ally sipped her drink. "That's not true, I once had a short trip…"

"A very short trip…" Roarke grinned enigmatically as if he understood. "And the questionnaire I sent that I might better find a way to indulge your wishes was actually filled out by your daughter, Madison."

"She did that?"

"She did." Roarke responded a bit amused as a wry grin formed on his lips. "And she focused primarily on your lack of success in romance."

"She did?"

"She did." Roarke started. "She mentions a Billy Thomas."

"My first love." Ally confessed. "He married someone else."

"William Collins?"

"Married someone else."

"Larry Paul."

"Returned to his ex-wife."

"Jason Smart."

"Married to his job." Ally paused a bit annoyed. "Whatever it is…" She looked up romantically deprived as Roarke looked back to her. He knowingly closed her file as he gazed upon her.

"I take it that if you could have any fantasy, it would be to be married to any of these gentlemen." He replied hauntingly sincere.

"Of course," Ally pulled her hair back insecurely. "But we all know it's not going to happen." She watched as Roarke rose and gestured to her. He turned to a hall in his home as Ally rose to follow him. Moving past native art and sculptures, Ally paused as the manservant took her drink. Roarke was waiting for her as she carefully treaded unaware of what was actually occurring.

"Mrs. McBeal," He shined warmly to her. "Did you ever read Mr. Collins' novella called 'Infinity?' It told the story of a room in a large mansion that shifted among different timelines, other possibilities, and the hero in it discovered how his present might have been better had he changed but one fact in his past. Now, let's say, you are the main character in that book, and at sometime in the past, one of those men actually married you. At the end of this hallway, you will find that other reality you have been missing and become the married woman you actually want to be."

"Really," Ally refused to believe him, but she knew she just had to humor him. Wondering if he was being condescending to her, she pictured look-alikes of either Larry or William at the end of the hall planning to lead and patronize her. She was not willing to be a part of this tomfoolery. She expected a vacation, not a charade to humiliate her.

"Aren't you the least big curious?" Roarke added as if he was trying to warn her of the truth.

"Maybe, I'll just take a peek." She tried to be condescending right back to him as she stepped forward and lightly glided down the hall. Rolling her eyes for being so foolish, she passed under an arch and past a separate egress into a descending stairway and then left to another long hallway. It suddenly dawned on her that Roarke's manor house was much more smaller from outside than its interior. She had not figured such a long hallway in such a place. At the far end, she glimpsed on a large room ahead leading into another room. At the top of more stairs on her right side was a huge plate glass window and to her left was a large expanse lined with portraits and sculptures. The last room seemed familiar as she gazed from the windows to the fireplace mantle and then a ship model on top of a cabinet and then over to the grand piano. Her hand lightly gazed over the papers on a Victorian desk turned to face a television against the far wall. Stepping back out of the room, the hallway had vanished. She was in the foyer of an obvious great house as she heard voices from afar.

"I know this place." Ally mumbled out loud as she tried to recall. "I've been here before…" She turned to the nearest portrait and leaned to read the name on it. Her eyes widened before it.

"Barnabas Collins 1770 – 1840."

"Oh my god…" She was actually spooked. How did Roarke re-create so faithfully a place she had only seen but twice in her life? "This is Collinwood!"

"Mommy!!!" Two cherubic girls with long dark curly hair can rushing to her and started grabbing her. Recoiling from them more confused than she'd ever been, she started backing from the little one bouncing up and down to be picked up as her eyes widened to the lady coming down the stairs. It was Carolyn Stoddard-Loomis, the matroness of Collinwood and aunt of William Collins!

"Ally," She grinned as she set down a suitcase. "You know, I love your daughters very much, but I love them even more when they're not here."

"Daughters?" Ally was not accepting this.

"Where's daddy?!" Little Georgia Collins cried out as her little sister hopped up and down still begging to be picked up.

"Daddy?" Ally's eyes were getting wider as her heart started beating faster. "Oh my god, I'm a mommy!!"


	3. Chapter 3

PART THREE

She was in Collinsport! Somehow, someway, she had been transported over a thousand miles to this tiny town on the Maine coast and she was suddenly a mommy to boot. She saw traces of her reflection in these tiny girls who called themselves Georgia and Lainey and even felt a happy tinkle in her heart as they raced to a white Saab in the driveway behind the house and climbed into it. Still trying to make heads or tails out of this elaborate mansion, she nearly left their suitcase on top of the car as she pulled out and tried to figure out where their father lived. If she and William had married, where would they be living? The Old House? No, that wasn't right. William wanted to live away from his parents. Where was that house he showed her when she came to Collinsport for his birthday? Was it off the estate? She turned right down a road past the grounds of the estate and continued driving as the girls bounced on the back seat and spoke of details of child important matters. Driving past several charming cottages and homes in this New England community, she nearly missed an obscured driveway as she hit the gas and backed up. Turning in, her memories of this house started returning. When she last saw this place, it was old and falling apart, but now it was painted the most wonderful blue and white and her favorite flowers lined the walk up to the front steps. The best part was the familiar black trans am in the driveway. The girls started bouncing eager to get home as Ally stopped the car.

"Is this it?" She asked as the two brunette pixies raced ahead. Georgia pushed her sister aside as Lainey landed with a thud in the grass. She scowled a bit and then looked up to Ally.

"She pushed me!!" Her tiny lips puckered and her beautiful brown eyes started crying.

"Oh, you little baby." Ally lifted her up to protect her as the child's little arms hugged her.

"I love you, mommy!" Lainey cried out as Ally's heart broke. That's what she wanted. Her life finally felt as if it meant something as she grinned contently as carried the wonderful darling in her arm. Tiny Lainey Collins stared back up to her with undying love with large brown eyes in a delicate doll-like face shaped by dark brown curls of different sizes. Ally actually started feeling like a mommy as she carried the suitcase of these foreign children in her other hand and balanced Lainey in her other arm. Ally found herself gradually starting to love this as she walked into the immaculate surroundings within the large house.

"It's so clean!!!" She paused in the doorway. It just as well had been a haunted house when she first saw it five years ago, but now it looked like something she would have called home. She stared amazingly pleased at her wedding picture on the mantle. There was William beaming next to her looking as handsome as he ever was and there was herself in a wedding gown. It was just as she had always imagined it. Her heart felt light as she glimpsed all the other faces in the photo from John and Nita to Richard and Nell. Renee was beaming as if she had just gotten rid of her and Elaine appeared a bit upset and of course she should have been because it was her she had taken William from. Behind William's head, Richard poked up two annoying fingers. Next to him, Billy and Georgia stood as another happily married couple.

"Billy?" Ally wondered. Wasn't he dead? Her eyes panned from the furniture to the display case of ceramic unicorns and then through open shutters into the kitchen.

"Where's your mother?" William Collins spoke.

"Maybe she's still at Collinwood and these two urchins drove themselves back." Maddie's voice remarked. Was she here too?! Forcing herself forward, she pushed slightly against the swinging door just a crack and noticed a seen she would kill for. William was here as he helped his daughters into seats at the table to eat their dinner as Maddie poured glasses of milk for them and a soda for herself. Ally's heart started pumping faster as she feared William's wife was going to swoop in any minute and boot her from the house. Instead, her eyes panned down to her left hand as she noticed a wedding band on her finger. A light ecstatic giggle came from her chest as she felt like a child at Christmas. She wanted to join in, but what if it was all just another hallucination.

"Ally, honey?" William noticed her and pulled the door open to her as she lightly shrieked out of fear. "Aren't you hungry? I got your plate ready." He gazed upon her and wondered why she was so scared.

"Are you real?" Ally asked still hesitant to accept the reality she was seeing. William gazed upon her for a few seconds then turned back to Maddie and then back to his wife.

"Unfortunately, yes," William spoke assuredly to her. "And your daughters are extremely hungry and you should be too."

Ally just froze where she was and looked back to the enigmatic ring on her finger then back up to William. He seemed a bit heavier than the last time she saw him in Boston. It was just a few months after she had lost Billy and a year before she had left for New York. He had bumped into him on the street after Paula gave birth to his daughter, but now it seemed she had one upped Paula by not only giving birth to one daughter, but two.

"Mom," Maddie looked over the kitchen counter. "Are you okay?"

"What did you call me?" Ally looked back.

"I called you, 'mom.'" Maddie admitted. "Is there something else I should call you?" Maddie gazed back at her a bit worried. Ally gazed at William again, the ring on her finger and then her supposed daughters with another light pleasing giggle. The tiny cute one named Lainey too a bite of her corn on the cob and then placed it to her stuffed Barney as if he had bitten it. The one with the longer hair named Georgia peeled the crust off her fried chicken and then happily bit into a drumstick as William cleaned up the trash, dropped it aside and took Ally by the waist concerned by her distracted response to him and her life. She looked at him a bit scared.

"I got as much as I wanted to eat." He told her. "I'm going to go work at my desk." He gave her a peck on the cheek, but Ally instead grabbed him tight and started kissing him much more passionately. Her leg curled around his leg as Maddie scowled disgustedly at the two of them kissing. William was gasping as Ally let loose with what seemed like twenty years of pent up unreleased affection.

"They're kissing again." Little Georgia cried out.

"Stop it! Stop it!" Maddie screamed at them as her parents looked at her. "Why don't you two just get a room?!"

"Ally, baby," William looked at his wife clinging to her and beaming to him like a sex-starved schoolgirl. "You haven't kissed like that since we were dating!"

""I have never stopped loving you." Ally had tears of joy in her eyes. "This is exactly like what I pictured being married to you would be like." She had tears falling from her eyes. She began kissing him hard again as William's foot slid under him and the two of them crashed to the floor with Ally on top of him.

"You guys shouldn't have to see this." Maddie turned her back to the kissing old people and covered up Georgia and Lainey's eyes in her hands.

"I wanna baby sister I can beat up!!!" Lainey cried out a bit wise beyond her five years.


	4. Chapter 4

PART FOUR

Sunlight was streaming through the house known as Seaview Manor. William Collins lay in bed as the morning ended and started up tiredly at the ceiling. He was tired and sleepy and his mind was shifting in and out of consciousness as he barely fell unconscious again and then felt his wife's hands over him once more. She kissed the tip of his neck under his left ear and began nuzzling his ear again.

"Ally…" He gasped tiredly. "For the love of god… I'm tired and exhausted. If you did something wrong and you're trying to break it too me, please just tell me. Every time I finally started to drift off to sleep last night, you were on top of me again!" He felt her affectionately nibbling at his earlobe.

"Ally," He gasped tiredly. "When we got married, I promised I'd never hurt you, but for just an hour of rest, I swear I'll toss you out the window!"

"Did you forget I can kick box?' She whispered seductively in his ear while her tongue and her lips tugged and tasted his earlobe.

"No," William forced a grin as her hand glided up against his chest. "It's very evident what you can do with your body when we're having sex."

"I did not need to hear that!" Maddie screamed through the closed bedroom door. Out in the hall, she pounded her head trying to purge her mind of the image of her parents having sex. "Get out of my head! Get out of my head!" She struck at her temples as she tried to change the subject. "Look," She yelled through the door. "I gave Lainey and Georgia breakfast, but it's now going on eleven o'clock and I'm not making them lunch. I've got a life too you know! If you want me, I'm going with Cousin Carrie to hang out at the Blue Whale to look at boys."

"Have a nice time." Ally opened the bedroom door in front of her shining with a big satisfied grin on her face. A giggle in her heart, she pulled her robe a bit tighter as Maddie stared at her with a mixture of confusion and worry. Her mother was acting just a bit weirder than usual and she knew it. Maddie just turned away and Ally gazed on her maternally and then turned around a bit less love-starved than usual. She gazed on William sitting on the edge of the bed in his underwear briefs and gazed intently upon him like an infatuated teen with all the love in her heart. Her faced beamed with unbridled love for him.

"Don't look at me like that." William scratched his tired head and yawned. "I'm taking a shower and then I'm taking a nap locked up in the guest room."

"Can I join you in that shower?" Ally made a funny embarrassed grin.

"Not this time." William responded with a warning as the phone by the bed rang on the nightstand. He reached and picked it up as he yawned again. "Hello, what? Yeah, just a minute, Ally?" He handed the phone to his wife as he sat up and walked around the bed to the bathroom. Sitting in his spot, Ally tugged at her robe as she lifted the receiver to her ear.

"Hello?"

"Ally, it's me, Billy," Her first love sat in a Boston law office looking over three case files on the desk before him.

"Billy??" Ally froze where she was as felt a cold shiver up her spine. The last time she heard his voice, he was standing in court giving arguments in a case and confusing her with his wife. A few seconds later, he was laying on the floor dying. His death was probably the worst event that had ever happened to her and now, he was calling her up as if he was just a few miles away. It felt so good to hear his voice again! Unfortunately, she now found herself married to William and as much as she loved him, she wanted to be near Billy again to tell him she still loved him too. This strange fantasy was pulling all her heartstrings at once.

"You're alive!!!?" She choked on the realization.

"Barely," Billy rolled his eyes toward a file Elaine just dumped on him. "Richard and Liza are on vacation again, John's having another nervous breakdown and Georgia's trying to get pregnant again. I'm stretched so thin around here I'm going nuts." He exhaled deeply a second. "Look, Ally, you know I would never drag you to Boston for nothing, but as the junior law partner I really need some help around here!"

"Partner? Boston?" This new reality was too confusing. Not only was Billy alive, but she was also partner? How did that happen? She was still trying to get over the reality of him just being alive for her.

"Billy," Ally could hear the anxiety in her own voice. "I just want to say how…." She looked up as William entered her peripheral vision to get underwear and a t-shirt from the bureau. She now had two of her true loves back to her and she was torn between them. How was she going to handle being married to one while the other turned out to be alive again? She had handled losing both of them and now she had them both. What was she going to do?

"I'll have to call you back." She replied with a distracted tone as William started for the bathroom again. Hanging up the phone, Ally stood and reached out for him. Catching his arm, she pulled him closer and then looked up into his eyes once more. She never thought she'd be able to do this again after he had married Paula, but she was somehow his wife this time, wasn't she?

"What's going on in that mind of yours?" He looked into her eyes and saw the tortured waif she once was had returned. His thumb stroked her chin and lifted it up as his lips closed over hers. Ally's breath gasped as their lips parted as so many things went to war in her subconscious.

"You don't want to know." She gasped again as she kissed him back.


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE

What sort of person was Ally McBeal-Collins? Ally McBeal wanted to know. If she had replaced her married counterpart for right now, where was she and was she going to be home any second? Ally poked through her closet looking through photo albums of memories she didn't have and wished she had. Her own face stared back at her from those pictures with infant daughters, people she didn't know and William's relatives. She found a memory book of objects she wanted to cherish, but obviously belonged to a person she never was. Countless shoes and expense clothes filled the closet she wanted to smuggle back to New York and an enigmatic white box in the top of the closet caught her attention. Taking it down, she pulled it out of the closet and placed it on the bed as she opened it.

"Yes!!!" She screamed out loud it ecstasy. It was the mink coat that William had promised her if they had married. As giddy as a schoolgirl, she pulled it on over her t-shirt and pranced over to the mirror to admire herself in it. It was just a bit heavy, but it felt so good and soft to her. She could truly get used to this very extravagant way of living at the risk of getting just a bit obnoxious from this fine living. She noticed extra faces in the mirror watching her.

"Mommy," Little Georgia Collins looked at her. "Where's daddy?" Her younger sister loitered behind her in the hall.

"He's napping in the other bedroom." Ally tried to keep from beaming. She saw so much of herself in them. She loved their little faces and prepubescent little bodies and tiny fingers and big brown eyes. Georgia scampered into the room and climbed on the bed to stand eye to eye with her as her little sister did the same.

"Will you play with us?" Little Georgia asked with her innocent little voice. Ally's heart just bumped faster with the concept of the tiny favor.

"I sure will." She promised as the little babies cheered out loud and scampered off hurriedly to get ready. Ally's heart was in ecstasy as within a few hours her every desire was brought to life. She finally had her big house, her children and best of all her loving husband. She lifted her head and giggled happily for the first time in her life as somewhere in the house a phone rang. It seemed as if her life finally had meaning and her dreams had come true as she dutifully tried to box up the mink coat once more and hurry to join her daughters.

Her daughters… What a wonderful sound!

"Mom," Maddie stood at the phone at the top of the stairs and motioned her to come closer. "There's a Mr. Roarke on the phone."

"Oh…" Ally reacted a bit worried as Lainey, the littlest daughter of all of them, rushed up and handed her a naked brunette Barbie.

"This one will be yours…." The effervescent toddler looked up at her. "Hurry up, we're ready."

"Just a minute," Ally beamed at her once more and took the phone from Maddie. Maddie turned back across the balcony above the foyer and vanished into a bedroom on the other side of the house. Ally lifted the receiver to her ear.

"Hello?"

"Mrs. McBeal…" Mr. Roarke responded very friendlily to her. "How are you enjoying your fantasy?"

"I'm loving it!!" Ally shrieked happily. "It's my ever fantasy come true! I don't know why or how, but I don't care. This is the most incredible and happy… ecstatic time of my life I've ever had. I don't want it to end."

"Well," Roarke's voice seemed to lament a little bit. "I'm sorry to say, but I'm afraid even your fantasy must come to a subsequent end."

"What?" Ally whined a bit in shock.

"Mommy!" A child cried out.

"Just a minute…" Ally called back.

"I'm sorry, but I thought you understood." Roarke replied back as his African-American manservant stood by him. "This is but a temporary arrangement. Subsequently, I'm afraid, you must come back."

"No." Ally decided.

"I beg your pardon?"

"I belong here." Ally finally replied with a lump in her throat and a breaking in her heart. It was starting to turn into a cruel trick to her as she finally had true happiness, but if to give it all up. A tear fell from her eye. "This is my home, my family, my husband… I don't have anything waiting for me back there but… loneliness. I can't go back. Please, just leave me here."

"But Mrs. McBeal…" Roarke heard the phone hang up as he now lamented giving her a taste of paradise. Maybe he was hoping the reality of marital bliss might have dissuaded her or the reputation of the Collins girls might have made her rethink her desires, nut now he realized that even through all of that, she would not let go of any of it.

"Sounds like she's not coming back." His manservant replied. Beyond the retired Yoruba mystic, another mysterious figure was wandering the house ready to replace Roarke when he retired. A figure with an English accent and snowy white hair most of the islanders speculated was not just their employer's apprentice… but a relative.

"Apparently not, Mojo," Roarke leaned back in his seat. "But I'm afraid Mrs. McBeal must realize that life much like a highway, there are not always short cuts…"

"Unless you make them yourself." The would-be successor chimed in himself.


	6. Chapter 6

PART SIX

Angelique Bouchard Collins stood in the foyer of her son's home and stared at Ally as if she had not seen her before. She seemed different to her, but she didn't know how. It was as if her son now had a second wife, but that was impossible, wasn't it? She sensed a difference that should not have been there, and she was not comfortable with it.

"Okay," Ally prepped her daughters. "Your grandmother is taking you two little monsters to Papa John's for dinner and then you're spending the night with her so your father and I can have a night to ourselves. Lainey, no picking your nose and Georgia, no long distance phone calls."

"You never let us have any fun!" Little Georgia hissed as Ally tied her little hat. Angelique chuckled warmly at the two little darlings and then gazed at Ally once more and wondered why her daughter-in-law felt like a stranger. It was as if Ally was another person, but that was impossible. How many Ally McBeals were there?

"Don't worry, dear," Angelique lightly herded her grandchildren to the door. "Grandma is in control." The two girls scampered around in their little clothes and their tapping shoes on the hard wood floor of the foyer as their grandmother held open one of the front doors to them. Georgia rushed ahead to her grandmother's Jaguar as Lainey rushed to catch up. A moment to look back, Angelique stepped down off the front porch as she looked back to pull up the hood on her sealskin coat.

"Was it worth it, Ally?" She replied enigmatically.

"What?" Ally looked down from the porch.

"Your fantasy…" Angelique replied mystically with a knowing grin then turned down the walk. Ally froze where she was as a shiver danced down her spine. Just a bit afraid, she closed the door and stood where she was for a few minutes. Outside, Angelique's car started up and she drove backward into the yard and then around to head down the long driveway. As she turned round to see just where she backed up her cherry red Jaguar, she mumbled under her breath.

"Amadeus Roarke…" The retired sorceress almost silently whispered to herself. "What have you done this time?"

Spooked just a bit, Ally tried to hold her ground as she returned to the kitchen in back of the house. With her daughters gone and Maddie spending the night at Collinwood with her Cousin Carrie, she and her husband were going to have a romantic night together. She checked her roast in the oven and then tasted one of the noodles boiling on the stove and stirred her vegetable medley. Stepping back, she carried the candles to place at the table as she heard a sound from the living room. Someone had entered the house as she lit the candles and blew out the matches.

"Back from the library?" She called out. "I got rid of the rug rats, and just thought we'd have a nice evening at home." She poured wine into two glasses and lifted one each in her two hands. Backing through the kitchen door, she turned round to the living room as Mr. Roarke sat on the sofa looking at her. Ally froze as she stared at him.

"Mrs. McBeal," He started as he looked up at her. "I gave you as much time as I possibly could, but I'm afraid to tell you, your fantasy is really over."

"No." Ally replied adamantly with a quirky John Cage toss of her head. "This is my house. This is my family. I'm not going anywhere." He ended with a nervous chuckle.

"But you can't possibly stay."

"Yes, I can." Ally insisted. "I belong here."

"No, you don't." Roarke shifted his seat on the sofa. "I am truly sorry that Mrs. Ling Woo altered the events that prevented Mr. William Collins from asking you to marry him, but it happened… in your timeline, not in this one. It happened to you and it did not happen in this timeline. You could not possibly stay even if I wanted to leave you here. I am truly sorry."

"No one…" Ally gritted her teeth and narrowed her eyes with the fury of a teddy bear. "Is moving me out of this house."

"I don't have to do anything." Roarke answered mysteriously as if everything was occurring according to his plans. "But I'm afraid she might have other plans." He gestured behind her as Ally looked back to her reflection in the mirror on the wall and turned back to face Mr. Roarke.

"That's me." Ally beamed. "And I say I'm staying."

"Are you?" Roarke's voice lowered softly as Ally looked again to the mirror. Standing before it was Ally McBeal-Collins herself. Ally's eyes widened in shock at the difference in their appearances. Circling each other, it became obvious that single Ally had shoulder length blonde hair and was quite thin, almost skinny. Her married counterpart had let her hair return to its natural collar and allowed it to grow quite long. It was almost as long as Nell's hair. Married Ally was also just a bit busty from nursing her infant daughters and quite a bit heavier, but not enough to make her less than a beautiful woman. It was obvious from looking at her at the amount of exercise she had done to lose her pregnancy pounds. They were as different as night and day, but one of them had paid her tolls and made the price for happiness and her marriage and motherhood and the other hadn't.

"Mrs. Collins," Roarke stood up and smoothed out his white suit. "My name is Mr. Roarke and, well, this lady needs no introduction. This is the woman you used to be."

"I don't understand what's going on here." Married Ally gazed back at her single counterpart.

"Well," Roarke continued. "It's really quite simple. She wants your life." Married Ally turned to Single Ally. They stared at each other a bit as Single Ally stumbled back just a bit and felt just a bit afraid of the woman she could have been.

"No." Married Ally answered. "This is my house and my family."

"But…" Single Ally tried to talk.

"No." Ally McBeal-Collins answered. "You're not the one who went through ten hours of labor to give birth. You're not the one who nearly died in the hope that a second daughter might live…"

"But…"

"I'm not finished." The real Mrs. Collins continued. "I worked my ass off to make this once deserted house a home. I went through Elaine, Paula, Tricia and, god help me, even Georgia I think to get married to William. My daughters have embarrassed me publicly and privately driving off babysitters and flooding theatres and shopping malls. I have paid my dues in this marriage and I am not giving it up." She hissed a bit as if she expected a negative rebuttal from her counterpart.

"But…"

"This…" Mrs. Collins continued. "…Is my house!!" She stared down her counterpart as Roarke gently motioned to the front door. Still eternally single, Ally McBeal felt her heart was not just broken but crushed. Her feet moved stiffly as if they had become lead weights. Mr. Roarke opened the door for her as William's trans am came driving up the driveway. She stared upon him once more and then back to the woman she could have been had but her past matched that of her counterpart.

"Oh," Married Ally giggled an evil laugh and short toss of her hair. "Thanks for the dinner. My husband and I will love it."

Ally wanted to hit and punch her, but her heart and feelings were ripping her apart. It had all been so wonderful, and yet so brief. It was like waking from a wonderful dream she did not want to end. A part of her died as she heard William's car door slam shut. She wanted to hold him once more, and to say good-bye to him. She choked on the heartbreak that returned from losing him, but as she opened and closed her eyes, she was not on the front stoop of William's home in Collinsport; she was back on the veranda of Roarke's island paradise. Palm trees towered over her as oceanic natives moved about in Polynesian attire. One of them passed by her into Mr. Roarke's home behind her as she tried to hold on to her feelings.

"Mrs. McBeal," Roarke looked upon her. "Again, I am terribly sorry, but even you must realize that… love is one of the most powerful forces of the universe. Even if you lose it… you always find it again." He stepped out of the way as Ally recognized Jason Smart. Clad in a white shirt and blue jeans, he was holding a red rose to her as she stared upon him and hesitantly took it from him.

"I know I'm the last person you ever wanted to see, but…" He gazed upon her and took her hand. "Ally, I know I've kept my job secret from you and a lot of weird things happen around me, but all I know is that when I'm around you, my life isn't quite so weird. I see magic in you I've never felt from anyone else. I think about you constantly and when you're not around, I feel alone. Please… please take me back."

Ally looked at the rose in her hand. It pricked her thumb as she sucked the cut on her finger. She looked up at him.

"You can't tell me anything?" She pulled her hair from blowing in her face.

"I work for the government." The son of Maxwell Smart answered. "That's it."

Ally inaudibly gasped and allowed him to take her hand. Pulling her close, Jason closed his lips over hers as her hands pulled him close. She felt his body on hers as she looked over his shoulder and through a nearby window. William and Ally Collins were in a deep embrace as her counterpart stared out with a knowing grin and toasted her with a glass of wine.

"Don't look back, Mrs. McBeal." Mr. Roarke replied as he leaned against a lamppost. "Instead, perhaps you should look forward…" He raised his own tropical drink to his lips as Ally and Jason departed down the front steps of his home and walked away hand in hand.

"Boss," Mojo came rushing up. "Lizzie Borden got past one of those CSI guys and is now loose on the island."

"You know the drill." Roarke rolled his eyes. Every time a professional criminologist wanted to live through a historical crime scene to try and solve it, some historical figure always slipped through to the present!

END


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